Chapter 69 68. Son of the King of Portugal

The King of Portugal had a son named Pietro.Pietro longs for marriage, but he has not been able to find the wife he wants.One day, returning from hunting, Pietro saw a beautiful girl in front of the shoemaker's shop. She had thick blond hair, big watery eyes, black and bright, and a complexion as rosy as an apple. "She is so beautiful, she could be my wife," Pietro said to himself.Back in the palace, he put down his shotgun, changed into clothes suitable for his status, and went out again. "Anyway, I'm going to talk to her," he thought and thought. "It's a pity she's just a cobbler's daughter," he thought as he walked to the cobbler's shop.He chatted with the girl, and he found her not only beautiful but also well-bred: in short, he fell deeply in love with the girl.He said to her, "Will you marry me?"

"What?" she said with a smile. "What do you think? You are the son of a king and I am just a poor shoemaker's daughter. It's a world of difference." "I'm serious. It doesn't matter to me. If you like me, I'll marry you," said Pietro. To make a long story short, they were immediately engaged, and Pietro returned to the palace full of joy, because it was time for lunch. During the meal, he didn't want to drink the soup, and he couldn't eat the rice. When he finally ate the fruit, he said, "Father, I have decided to get married. I have found a wife."

The king was very happy when he heard the news, but when he learned who the girl was, he exclaimed, "What? The shoemaker's daughter? She is not worthy of you, when people see the shoemaker's daughter sitting on the throne in the Portuguese royal palace What will the nobles say, what will the whole people say? You cannot marry her." "Father," said Pietro, "I am sorry to upset you; as a prince, I have promised the girl. I can only marry her." "In that case," said the king bitterly, "you may keep your word. But you must leave this palace, and leave this country. I don't want to see you or her here."

A few days later, they held an austere wedding.The couple boarded a carriage with a maid and headed for Paris.In the evening, Pietro, the bride, and the maid, fatigued by the journey, fell asleep in the carriage, while the coachmen continued on their way.It was very dark, and they came to a fork in the road, and the driver took the wrong direction, and instead of turning right they turned left.There was thick undergrowth on the left, and they lost their way.Suddenly, a herd of wild beasts rushed out, fell on the coachman and horses, and devoured them in the blink of an eye.Pietro was awakened by the noise and called to the coachman, but no one answered him.Because they are all dead.He got out of the car, only to see the ground covered with the boots and horseshoes of those unfortunates.The two women also got out of the car in fear. The three of them together wanted to run out of the bush. Finally, they came to an open place and fell to the ground out of breath.Pietro built a shed out of sticks, and the three of them, half dead from fright and fatigue, huddled together in the shed, waiting for daylight.

At dawn, Pietro was the first to get up and went outside the shed.He saw a spring not far away.Pietro took the shotgun he had with him and went to the spring to wash his face.When he got there, he took off his hat, and put the shining ring on it, so that he might better wash his hands and face.But while he was washing, a bird appeared, swooped down, snatched the ring on the hat, and flew to a big tree.Pietro raised his gun and ran to shoot the bird: but just as he took aim the bird jumped from tree to tree and flew away.Pietro followed after the bird.In this way, he chased one tree after another, ran for a whole day, but still failed to shoot the bird.It was getting dark, and the bird stopped at last; but it was so dark that the bird was hard to find, hiding in a mass of leaves.Pietro was very angry at losing the ring, so he decided to spend the night under the tree and kill the bird at dawn the next day.In fact, he aimed his gun at the pile of leaves before dawn, but the bird was more cunning and flew away before he noticed it.He chased the bird for a long distance, when a very high wall appeared in front of him, and the bird flew over it and was out of sight.

The wall has neither doors nor windows.Pietro walked around the wall for an unknown distance, until he came to the center of the forest.There was a tall tree there, and one of its branches reached into the wall.Pietro climbed to the top of the tree and looked down, and found a beautiful garden surrounded by walls, and the bird was pecking leisurely on the grass in the garden.Pietro slid along the branches to the top of the wall and jumped cautiously to the ground.He approached the bird slowly, aiming his shotgun.But the bird escaped again, and flew over the high wall into the forest.Pietro was now trapped in the garden: he tried everything he could to climb the wall and escape.

While he was desperately trying to escape, a magician appeared.His eyes glowed and he yelled, "Bastard! Thief! I've got you at last! Now I know who is destroying the plants in my garden!" Pietro explained: "No, sir, you must be mistaken. I didn't come in to destroy or steal anything from you, but for other reasons." But the magician is indifferent, and his eyes are blazing with anger: he wants to kill Pietro desperately.Pietro knelt down and begged him not to kill him, and told what had happened to him. The magician said, "Well, well! Time will tell if you are lying. Come back to the palace with me now."

They entered the palace, and the magician's wife saw them and asked, "What's the matter?" The magician said, "I have caught this young man who ruined our garden. What shall we do with him?" After hearing the whole story, the sorceress said, "Well, if what he says is true, he is worthy of pity. Let us first test, husband, whether he is honest or lying, competent or stupid." After the test, we will decide what to do with him." So Pietro was sent to look after the garden and vegetable garden, and to cultivate the large garden, and he behaved cautiously before the two magicians, obeying them, pleasing them, and planting the garden well, and the magicians The couple were very happy and treated him like their own son.

After a few months, one day, the magician said to Pietro: "Hey, Pietro, now you turn over this field with a shovel, because I want to sow it in my way." So Pietro He began to dig the ground with the shovel, and when he was bending over to work, what did he see?The bird that stole the ring, it flew into the ground, and was digging up the dirt with its claws.Without hesitation, Pietro ran to fetch the gun, aimed at the bird, and this time, the bird was killed.He touched the bird's belly, and the ring was still inside. Hearing the gunshot, the magician ran out, crying, "What's the matter? What's the matter?"

Pietro said: "Look here, uncle," for he now called the magician uncle, "I have been tested to prove that I am an honest man, and that what I said when I first broke into your beautiful garden was true. Didn't I tell you about the bird and the ring? Now I've killed the bird and the ring is still in its belly." The magician said: "That means I can treat you as my own son, like me, the master of this place." So Pietro lived there like the son of a magician couple, but he always felt shut up in the garden, he was not happy, he was always trying to make them understand that he wanted to get out of there.The magician was as kind to him as he was to his own son, and seeing what he was thinking, he said to him, "Listen, it will be dangerous to go out from here, because there are many wild animals in the forest, and I also I don't know how you came to us in the first place, and you didn't get eaten. But if you wait for a storm at sea, the water will cover the top of the wall, and ships will come and anchor on the wall. If you have patience, You can leave by boat."

After several months, the magician finally said to him: "Tomorrow there will be a big storm at sea. Pietro, if you decide to go, start preparing. I'm sorry, but it's up to you. You can Go to the vault first, and take as much as you like." Before he could speak again, Pietro went to the vault and filled his pockets with shiny gold coins. The next morning, after Pietro got up, he found that the magician was right: the sea water had reached the top of the wall, and there were still many boats moored beside the wall.Pietro approached one of the ships and asked, "Captain, where is your ship going?" "I'm going to Port of Spain," said the captain. "Excellent!" said Pietro. "I happen to be going there too. May I take your boat?" He bid farewell to the magicians and his wife, thanked them for taking care of him, and then left by boat.A few days later, in Port of Spain, he disembarked and checked into an inn.He didn't know what he could do in Port of Spain, so he asked the hotel clerk: "How can I find a job in the city?" "Why not?" said the clerk. "Here's a guy who's in charge of finding jobs for people. He's here every morning." When the man came, Pietro introduced himself to him and the man said to him: "If you will, the Doge's house is looking for a servant." Pietro said he would, and the man took him to the governor, who became his personal servant.Every day he sends the master's children to school.It was the custom of the Governor to give each child a bag of coins, so that they might learn to give: on the way, whoever asked them for money in the name of God, they gave him a coin.And every time the child gave someone a coin, Pietro gave that person a golden paolo that he had taken from the magician.Soon the news spread all over the city, and people were whispering about the Governor, saying, "If only that servant would replace that miser as Governor." Then there was a huge riot: people ran under the windows of the Governor's house , shouting: "Step down! Go down, Doge! We want servant Pietro to be our Doge!" Pietro stood at the window beckoning the people to be quiet, and the crowd calmed down and dispersed. You know, the Doge has a daughter who is of marriageable age, and she is in love with Pietro.When she saw that people favored Pietro more than her father, she persuaded him to marry her to Pietro.Vietro continued his philanthropy, but now instead of one Kim Paulo each, there were two.A still greater commotion ensued, and the governor thought he might as well retire to a villa outside the town.Pietro was made governor, and no one was displeased with his management. Let us go back to Pietro's wife and maid who were left in the shed when the bird took the ring.When they discovered that Pietro was missing, the two women searched for him throughout the city and the countryside.Walking and walking, after a few months, they also arrived in Port of Spain.They lodged in an inn, had their hair cut short by a barber, and men's clothes were made for them by a tailor, and asked the man where they could find work. The clerk said, "Here is a man who is looking for servants for other people. He will be here in a moment. Tell him." The man came and said to the two women, "Our new governor is short of a cook and a servant. Let me take you there." After an agreement was reached, the shoemaker's daughter was in charge of cooking and her maid became a servant.But after too long Pietro did not recognize them, nor did they recognize Pietro. Not long after, one day, Pietro said to his wife, the governor's daughter, "I won't be eating at home at noon today. Some nobles invited me to eat outside. You should stay at home." "Go ahead," said the wife, "I'm going to my dad's villa to be with him, so I don't have to be alone at home. I might stay there for a few days." So they went their separate ways. Only the cook and the servants remained in the palace, that is, two women in disguise.The cook said, "I'm going to clean the kitchen while the master is away. You will keep this ring for me. It was given to me by my husband when we got engaged. I don't want to spoil it." The servant put the ring on her finger for fear of losing it; then she went to clean the master's room, and to prevent it from being scratched she took it off and put it on a small chest.But when she was done with work, she forgot to put it back on. In the evening Pietro returned, ate his supper cheerfully, and went to bed.In the morning, as soon as he opened his eyes, he saw the ring shining on the small cabinet. "Whose is this?" he said to himself, holding it in his hand and looking at it repeatedly, as if he had seen it somewhere before.He rang for the servant, and asked her who had put the ring here. "Ah, forgive me, my lord," said the servant, "it's all my fault. I left it here. But it's not mine, it's the chef's." "Then call the chef," Pietro ordered.Here comes the cook. Long story short, through questioning, answering and explaining, they finally recognized each other.Both women were happy, but Pietro was still a little apprehensive because he didn't know how to get out of this mess, considering the wife he had married in Port of Spain.When the Doge's daughter returns from the country, Pietro gathers his courage and tells her about his experience and how he found his first wife in the mansion. "Tell me, how can I make it up?" he said finally, "because I'm really overwhelmed." His second wife pretended to be nonchalant and said, "Oh, is that what you are for? Do you think I would be jealous? Even if you have two wives instead of one, what does it matter? Turkey A man can marry twelve wives!" Pietro couldn't believe his ears, he could be with his two wives and live in harmony! When it was dark, Pietro said, "Who will sleep with me tonight?" The governor's daughter said, "You have been separated for so long, tonight you sleep with your first wife." So Pietro went to sleep with his first wife.Unexpectedly, within an hour, the door was opened, and the governor's daughter came in with a pistol in one hand.She shot Pietro in the head and shot his wife in the head.Thus the envious and hypocritical woman took her revenge. The entire mansion was awakened by the gunfire, and people ran to Pietro's room to see the scene.The guards immediately arrested the governor's daughter.The next day she was taken to the square, tied to a pile of firewood in the midst of an angry crowd, put on a shirt covered with asphalt, and burned to death as she deserved. (Montale Pistoia area)